KALININGRAD

Perhaps best known for its being the home of Immanuel Kant, the great Enlightenment philosopher whose walks around the city were so regular that it was said citizens could set their watches by the regularity of his perambulations!

Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal state of the Russian Federation that is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea and has the city of Kaliningrad as its administrative center.

Until 1945, Kaliningrad was known as Königsberg, the former capital of East Prussia, but after its World War II victory over Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union annexed the city and the surrounding area.

Kaliningrad’s ultimate strategic value to Russia is that it functions as a warm-water port as well as a staging area for military exercises. Russia has held frequent exercises in the region and Moscow has often threatened to place nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, which borders multiple NATO states.